Tuesday, June 03, 2014

Dispatch From Tritium Heights

Post-Script: Anyone who lives in a community adjacent to a classified facility knows there's a local subculture that seems to possess an awareness of what's going on, out of proportion to what's been officially acknowledged. Perhaps it's because secrets are so hard to keep, or because the average Joe is a bit smarter than he's given credit for. There's also the economic impact such a facility has on the local economy, which is difficult to deny or conceal; in the case of Albuquerque, the presence of Sandia National Laboratory and Kirtland AFB (along with who-knows-what-else) brings with it a plethora of jobs, money and awareness that there's "something" going on just south of town, and has been since the late 1940s. Federal spending is big here in New Mexico; per capita spending might be the highest in the nation, considering our sparse population and many federal installations.

I've been fascinated for a long while by the high fence separating wealthy Four Hills from the neighboring military reservation and its many secrets. The dichotomy could not be more striking. Photo made with handmade pinhole mounted into Soviet-era Zorki-4 camera body (as is fitting when exploring old Cold War secrets) onto Ilford XP2 Super film. Typecast via Hermes Rocket (the Swiss maintaining their typically neutral stance on things political).